Aero Theatre

1328 Montana Avenue,

Santa Monica,
CA90403

Ahhh…The good old Aero where we kids used to sit scrunched down with our knees up against the seat in front, with an all day sucker watching the Saturday morning movies for 25 cents in 1952. And we have the dental fillings to prove it. Glad to see the joint is still there.

It was mentioned early on in the comments here that the exterior of the Aero is seen in the movie “Get Shorty.” In that film, the characters portrayed by John Travolta and Rene Russo are seen watching the end of Orson Welles' “Touch of Evil” in this theater. I don’t know if those interior shots were also filmed at the Aero, but a good deal of the auditorium decor can be seen.

Just saw a gorgeous stereo Panavision print of FIRST MEN ON THE MOON at the Aero. I LOVE this theater and what the American Cinematheque is doing there! It’s also easier access than fighting the Hollywood & Highland traffic at the Egyption.

There was also an exhibit in conjunction with a new Ray Harryhausen book at Every Picture Tells A Story across the street.

American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre will be renamed soon after the producer, philanthropist Max Palevsky. Who contributed to the refurbishment of the theatre back in 2005. Max Palevsky passed away Wednesday May 5th. at the age of 85.

The neighborhood theater, with its low ticket prices and double features, appears to be going the way of newsreels and Flash Gordon serials. Revival houses and second-run theaters like the Fox Venice, the Criterion, the Rialto, the Vista, the Gordon and several others have closed their doors or changed their bookings to compete with places like the Cineplex Odeon theaters in Universal City.

But cheap tickets ($4) and double features still survive at the Aero Theater, a comfortable, mid-sized movie house located somewhat incongruously on Santa Monica’s trendy Montana Avenue. In an area where older businesses are razed every month, the Aero is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary. “Basically, we are a neighborhood theater, and the people nearby are the ones who have supported us over the years,” said Joe Domenico, who has owned the Aero since 1978. “Some people around here have been coming for decades.”

Aircraft magnate Donald Douglas Jr. built the Aero in 1939. It opened in 1940 and served the general public and workers from the Douglas Aircraft plant (near the present-day Santa Monica Airport). When World War II arrived and employees were working around the clock, Douglas kept the Aero showing movies at all hours, so workers on all shifts could enjoy “Abbott and Costellos, Gene Autrys, all of that,” Domenico said. “It was a great morale-booster.”

After the war the Aero continued as the only movie house in the north end of Santa Monica, Domenico said. As television took its toll on the movie industry in the 1950s and ‘60s, the Aero found ways to survive. Fridays became teen nights, and the Aero became a meeting place for Westside teen-agers looking for weekend recreation.

Today the major threat to the Aero comes from changing economic conditions on Montana Avenue. Rent in the tony shopping district is between $4 and $4.50 a square foot, said Alexis Scharff, chairman of the Montana Merchants Committee. Others put it nearer to $5. That’s up from $3.50 six years ago. The increase has led to single storefronts' being renovated, carved up and reopened as tiny boutiques. Older tenants, like the Sweet Sixteen Grill, a neighborhood fixture since 1942, have disappeared. The Aero is awfully tempting.

“The landlord, I’m sure, has been barraged by offers to sell the property,” Domenico said. “We have rumors start sometimes. A couple of years ago people were coming in here-some with tears in their eyes-asking if it was going to be knocked down, destroyed and rebuilt as something else. Some people were very emotional.”

The proliferation of multiple-screen theaters might also pose a threat to the Aero. There are only seven movie screens in Santa Monica, but there are to be 22 by 1990. The Mann and Cineplex corporations are building four-screen theaters on the soon-to-be-renovated 3rd Street mall, and AMC Theaters is putting in seven at the corner of Arizona Avenue and 3rd Street.

Can the Aero survive? Domenico isn’t sure, but he’s hopeful. “Well, we might not be able to get new movies as quickly then,” he said. “We might be the last stop before they go to video.” At present the theater is doing well, Domenico said. The changes on Montana Avenue have brought in new patrons, he said, and attendance has grown steadily for eight years. It’s especially good when the theater manages to book double bills of recent hits like last winter’s “Broadcast News” and “Wall Street.”

Andy Lerner, a Santa Monica Canyon resident, was there recently to see “Presidio” and “Big Business.” He found the Aero more comfortable, convenient and inexpensive than the theaters in Westwood and West Los Angeles. “It’s nice to go into a theater that has a small-town feel to it,” Lerner said. “And you don’t have to go to a shopping mall and fight your way past yogurt stands to see a movie.”

Small-town is the term that comes up most often when talking to Aero patrons. Hollywood location managers apparently agree: the Aero has been seen in movies like “From 10 to Midnight” and “Three on a Match.” Most recently it doubled as a Cape Cod movie house in the Meg Tilly-Rob Lowe picture “Masquerade.”

Although the projection and sound systems are contemporary, not much else has changed at the Aero since 1940. The white Streamline Moderne facade remains the same, as do the marquee, the terrazzo walkway, the light fixtures and even the seats. The popcorn maker dates back to the ‘50s, as does a kitschy serve-yourself ice cream case. Lumpy, comfortable sofas line the lobby. In one corner an antique soft- drink machine still stands, but it hasn’t worked for years. The company stopped making replacement parts for it years ago.

Although there’s not a theater anywhere that still charges 10 or 12 cents admission, ticket prices at the Aero are about as low as they come, especially for a double feature: General admission is $4, and children and the elderly pay $2. The price draws people from all over Los Angeles and helped earned the Aero the title of “Best Neighborhood Theater” in Los Angeles magazine.

Domenico laments the passing of what he calls “a sleepy little street,” but he says he’ll keep the Aero open as long as he can. “Who knows what will happen?” Domenico said, shrugging. “Venerable places like the Brown Derby have been knocked down. When I first got here, there were six or seven service stations on Montana. Now, apparently, the one next door is leaving, and we’ll have one left. "That’s progress. But it’s also a shame.”

“This theater’s name sounds "streamlined” or Googie-esqe, but the theater is not streamlined at all!"

To address an ancient issue, you’re confusing two types of architecture: Streamline Moderne and Googie. Streamline Moderne started in the 1930s, and took its inspiration from the shapes of aeroplanes, locomotives and ocean liners. The Academy Theater of Inglewood is a classic example of the Streamline Moderne style — smooth, flowing shapes and free of Art Deco’s obsessive details.

Googie comes from the 50s and is most typically associated with coffee shops, car washes, and fast food. It involves elements such as upswept roofs, sharp angles, large plate glass windows, exposed steel beams and flagcrete walls. See the Wich Stand in Ladera Heights in comparison to the Academy Theater. Very different.

Yes, the Aero building is not very streamlined. But the place was built for Douglass Aircraft Factory employees, and that’s where the name comes in, not from representing any particular style.